The city of Rome originated as a village of the Latini in the 9th century BC.

It was initially ruled by

kings, but the Roman Republic was established in 509 BC. During the 5th century BC, Rome gained
regional dominance in Latium, and eventuallythe entire Italian peninsula by the 3rd century BC. The
population of the city at this point is estimated at about 310,000 people.
With the Punic Wars, Rome gained dominance over the Mediterranean, displacing Hellenistic
Greece as the dominant regional power for the next five centuries. The Roman Empire was
established under Octavian in 27 BC, after Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul, followed by a period of
civil war. The city of Rome now surpassed a population of one million, likely the first city in history to
reach this size (compared to world population of about 200300 million at the time).
At the peak of Roman imperial power in the 2nd century, the population of the city numbered some
1.6 million, a size that it never attained again until its becoming the capital of the Republic of Italy in
1946; close to three percent of the population of the empire lived within its limits. Following the Crisis
of the Third Century and the transfer of the imperial capital toConstantinople in AD 330, Rome
entered a period of gradual decline.
After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Rome managed to hang on to the empire, still
known as the Romanempire but long centered on the eastern Mediterranean, until the 8th century as
the Duchy of Rome. But the city was reduced to a fraction of its former size, being sacked several
times in the 5th to 6th centuries, in 546 even temporarily depopulated entirely.[1] With the final loss of
imperial control in Italy, Rome became the capital of the Papal States inmedieval Italy. Papacy
struggled to retain influence in the emerging Holy Roman Empire, and during the Saeculum
obscurum, the population of Rome fell to as low as 30,000 inhabitants. Following the EastWest
Schism and the limited success in the Investiture Controversy, the Papacy did gain considerable
influence in high medieval Europe, but with theAvignon Papacy and the Western Schism, the city of
Rome was reduced to irrelevance, its population falling below 20,000.
Rome's decline into complete irrelevance during the medieval period, with the associated lack of
construction activity, assured the survival of very significant ancient Roman material remains in the
centre of the city, some abandoned and others continuing in use. Rome began to recover some
importance in the late 15th and 16th century. The Sistine Chapel was restored in 1480
and decorated by Michelangelo in 15081512. Construction of the Apostolic Palace began in 1589.
Construction of St. Peter's Basilica was begun in 1506, the most renowned work of Renaissance
architecture. The Roman Renaissance was cut short abruptly with the devastation of the city in
1527, but the Papacy reasserted itself in the Counter-Reformation, and the city continued to flourish
during the early modern period.
Rome was annexed by Napoleon and was technically part of France during 17981814. During
the Italian unification in the 19th century, the Roman Question referred to the status of Rome under
the temporal power of the popes. Rome was declared the capital of the kingdom of Italy on 27 March

1861, but the Italian government could not take its seat there because it was defended by a French
garrison. Rome was eventually captured in 1870, and the dispute was finally resolved with
the Lateran Pacts of 1929 establishing the Vatican State. Rome served as the capital of the Italian
Empire and Fascist Italy from 1870 to 1943. During this period, population hextupled from about
250,000 to 1.5 million. The Palace of Justicewas completed 1910.
Rome was under siege by the Allied invasion of Italy and was bombed several times. It was declared
an open city on 14 August 1943. It became the capital of the Italian Republic (established in 1946),
with a population of 4.4 million in its metropolitan area (as of 2015; 2.8 million within city limits)one
of the largest cities in Italy (after Milan, and roughly on par with Naples). It is among the largest
urban areas of the European Union[2] and classified as a "global city".[3]
Contents
[hide]

1Ancient Rome
o 1.1Earliest history
1.1.1Legend of Rome
1.1.2City's formation
1.1.3Italic context
o 1.2Etruscan dominance
o 1.3Roman Republic
o 1.4Roman Empire
1.4.1Early Empire
1.4.2Crisis of the Third Century
1.4.3Christianization
1.4.4Germanic invasions and collapse of the Western Empire
1.4.5Barbarian and Byzantine rule
2Medieval Rome
o 2.1Break with Byzantium and formation of the Papal States
o 2.2Formation of the Holy Roman Empire
o 2.3Roman Commune
o 2.4Guelphs and Ghibellines
o 2.5Boniface VIII and the Babylonian captivity
o 2.6Cola di Rienzo and the Pope's return to Rome
o 2.7Western schism and conflict with Milan
3Renaissance Rome
4Early modern history
o 4.1Sack of Rome (1527)
o 4.2Counter-Reformation
o 4.3Baroque period
5Modern history
o 5.1Italian unification
o 5.2Kingdom of Italy
o 5.3Capital of the Italian Republic
6Demographic history
7Historical city center

8See also
9References
o 9.1Bibliography
o 9.2Notes
o 9.3Further reading
9.3.1Imperial Rome
9.3.2Medieval, Renaissance, Early Modern

Ancient Rome[edit]
For more information, and history of Rome as a complete civilization, see Ancient Rome

Rome timeline
Roman Kingdom and Republic

753 BC

According to legend, Romulus founds Rome.

753
509 BC

Rule of the seven Kings of Rome.

509 BC

Creation of the Republic.

390 BC

The Gauls invade Rome. Rome sacked.

264
146 BC

Punic Wars.

146
44 BC

Social and Civil Wars. Emergence

of Marius,Sulla, Pompey and Caesar.

44 BC

Julius Caesar assassinated.

Earliest history[edit]
Further information: Founding of Rome
There is archaeological evidence of human occupation of the Rome area from at least 5,000 years,
but the dense layer of much younger debris obscures Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites.[4] The evidence
suggesting the city's ancient foundation is also obscured by the legend of Rome's beginning
involving Romulus and Remus.
The traditional date for the founding of Rome is 21 April 753 BC, following Marcus Terentius
Varro,[5] and the city and surrounding region of Latium has continued to be inhabited with little

interruption since around that time. Excavations made in 2014 have revealed a wall built long before
the city's official founding year. Archaeologists uncovered a stone wall and pieces of pottery dating
to the 9th century and the beginning of the 8th century, and there is evidence of people arriving on
the Palatine hill as early as the 10th century BC.[6][7]
Legend of Rome[edit]

Capitoline Wolf suckles the infant twins Romulus and Remus.

The origin of the city's name is thought to be that of the reputed founder and first ruler, the
legendary Romulus.[8] It is said that Romulus and his twin brother Remus, apparent sons of the god
Mars and descendants of the Trojan hero Aeneas, were suckled by a she-wolf after being
abandoned, then decided to build a city. The brothers argued, Romulus killed Remus, and then
named the city Rome after himself. After founding and naming Rome (as the story goes), he
permitted men of all classes to come to Rome as citizens, including slaves and freemen without
distinction.[9] To provide his citizens with wives, Romulus invited the neighboring tribes to a festival in
Rome where he abducted the young women from amongst them (known as The Rape of the Sabine
Women). After the ensuing war with the Sabines, Romulus shared the kingship with Sabine
King Titus Tatius.[10] Romulus selected 100 of the most noble men to form the Roman senate as an
advisory council to the king. These men he called patres, and their descendants became
the patricians. He created three centuries ofequites: Ramnes (meaning Romans), Tities (after the
Sabine king), and Luceres (Etruscans). He also divided the general populace into thirty curiae,
named after thirty of the Sabine women who had intervened to end the war between Romulus and
Tatius. The curiae formed the voting units in the Comitia Curiata.[11]
Attempts have been made to find a linguistic root for the name Rome. Possibilities include derivation
from the Greek , meaning bravery, courage;[12] possibly the connection is with a root *rum-,
"teat", with a theoretical reference to the totem wolf that adopted and suckled the cognately-named
twins. The Etruscan name of the city seems to have been Ruma.[13] Compare also Rumon, former
name of the Tiber River. Its further etymology remains unknown, as with most Etruscan
words.Thomas G. Tucker's Concise Etymological Dictionary of Latin (1931) suggests that the name
is most probably from *urobsma (cf. urbs, robur) and otherwise, "but less likely" from *urosma "hill"

(cf. Skt. varsman- "height, point," Old Slavonic "top, summit", Russ. "top; upward
direction", Lith. virsus "upper").
City's formation[edit]
Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill and surrounding hills approximately 30 km
(19 mi) from the Tyrrhenian Sea on the south side of the Tiber. The Quirinal Hill was probably an
outpost for the Sabines, another Italic-speaking people. At this location, the Tiber forms a Z-shaped
curve that contains an islandwhere the river can be forded. Because of the river and the ford, Rome
was at a crossroads of traffic following the river valley and of traders traveling north and south on the
west side of the peninsula.
Archaeological finds have confirmed that there were two fortified settlements in the 8th century BC,
in the area of the future Rome: Rumi on the Palatine Hill, andTitientes on the Quirinal Hill, backed by
the Luceres living in the nearby woods.[14] These were simply three of numerous Italic-speaking
communities that existed inLatium, a plain on the Italian peninsula, by the 1st millennium BC. The
origins of the Italic peoples lie in prehistory and are therefore not precisely known, but theirIndoEuropean languages migrated from the east in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC.
According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, many Roman historians (including Porcius Cato and Gaius
Sempronius) regarded the origins of the Romans (descendants of the Aborigines) as Greek despite
the fact that their knowledge was derived from Greek legendary accounts.[15] The Sabines,
specifically, were first mentioned in Dionysius's account for having captured the city of Lista by
surprise, which was regarded as the mother-city of the Aborigines.[16]
Italic context[edit]

The Etruscan Tomb of the Whipping

The Italic speakers in the area included Latins (in the west), Sabines (in the upper valley of
the Tiber), Umbrians (in the north-east),Samnites (in the South), Oscans, and others. In the 8th
century BC, they shared the peninsula with two other major ethnic groups: the Etruscans in the
North and the Greeks in the south.
The Etruscans (Etrusci or Tusci in Latin) were settled north of Rome in Etruria (modern northern
Lazio, Tuscany and part of Umbria). They founded cities such as Tarquinia, Veii, and Volterra and

deeply influenced Roman culture, as clearly shown by the Etruscan origin of some of the mythical
Roman kings. The origins of the Etruscans are lost in prehistory. Historians have no literature, no
texts of religion or philosophy; therefore, much of what is known about this civilisation is derived from
grave goods and tomb findings.[17]The behaviour of the Etruscans has led to some confusion. Like
Latin, Etruscan is inflected and Hellenised. Like the Indo-Europeans, the Etruscans were patrilineal
and patriarchal. Like the Italics, they were war-like. The gladiatorial displays actually developed out
of Etruscan funerary customs. Future studies of Etruscan and more excavations in the region will no
doubt shed more light on the origin of Rome and the Romans.[18][19]
The Greeks had founded many colonies in Southern Italy between 750 and 550 BC (which the
Romans later called Magna Graecia), such as Cumae, Naples,Reggio Calabria, Crotone, Sybaris,
and Taranto, as well as in the eastern two-thirds of Sicily.[20][21]